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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

$1.1 Billion for Zika: The FY 2017 Breakdown

Last week, the President signed into law an act
of spending that includes $1.1 billion allocated for Zika virus-related efforts
through the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2017). As I have written about previously, this funding has traveled a long and sinuous road through
Congress since February, when the President originally
requested
$1.9 billion in emergency aid for Zika.

But now that it’s finally official, here’s a look at what
it contains. This figure shows a breakdown of how the $1,108,094,000 in Zika
funding is divvied up.

Most relevant to the scientific community is the $933
million allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services, which
includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Of this, $152 million is
designated for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID) “for research on the virology, natural history, and pathogenesis of the
Zika virus infection and preclinical and clinical development of vaccines and
other medical countermeasures for the Zika virus and other vector-borne
diseases, domestically and internationally,” as stated
in the bill.

This is good news for the many scientists who have
initiated research projects in response to the emerging concerns relating to
Zika, and hope to continue that work. Researchers are currently digging for
answers to questions such as how long the virus can persist in the infected
person, what mechanisms underlie the range of symptoms (or lack thereof) that
can result from infection and how the course of Zika virus infection might be affected
by co-infections from other Flaviviruses such as the dengue virus.

This is also good news for researchers interested in
developing a vaccine against Zika. Additional support for a Zika virus vaccine is
provided in the $387 million designated to the NIH Public Health and Social
Services Emergency Fund.

In order for a new vaccine to be approved by the Food and
Drug Administration for public use, it must first pass through three costly and
time-consuming phases
of clinical trials. NIAID director Anthony Fauci explained in a recent interview
that there are already two Zika DNA vaccine candidates that are in the first
phase of these trials (NCT01099852 and NCT02840487),
and several others that are a step behind in the preclinical stages of testing.
Without this funding, plans to move trials with these vaccine candidates into
the next phase by January would have been stalled. Since the Brazilian summer
mosquito season is at its peak in January, this timing is critical.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also
receives a $394 million slice of this pie, which the bill states
will be used “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to Zika virus, health
conditions related to such virus, and other vector-borne diseases, domestically
and internationally”. This will be a boon to places like Florida, where
mosquito control efforts have strained local budgets;
and Puerto Rico, where the first major outbreak of Zika infections this year is
estimated
to have affected at least a few thousand pregnant women who will give birth in
the coming months.

Also included in this funding is nearly $20 million for
the Department of State that will support foreign and domestic response
efforts, and over $155 million in foreign aid for ‘Bilateral Economic
Assistance’ and ‘International Assistance Programs’ via the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID). This money will fund coordinated efforts
with groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO), which has requested
$122 million this year from donor countries to implement a strategic response
to Zika. So far, it has received only $21.3 million, about half of which has
already come from USAID.